The Chicago Bears have one of the most disappointing offenses in the NFL, and, for awhile, one of the most ineffective run games.
Heading into last Sunday’s game against the Chargers, the Bears were determined to not only commit to the run but get production for an offense struggling to find any sort of balance.
The Bears run game came alive against the Chargers, where they ran for a season-high 162 yards, led by rookie running back David Montgomery, who had 27 carries for 135 yards. Not only was it the Bears’ first 100-yard rusher this season, but it was the most yardage by a Bears running back since Jordan Howard’s 147 yards against the Bengals in 2017.
This was the kind of game that the offense needed — minus the redzone inefficiency — to build off.
“A game like this will help all of us on offense because we know we can run the ball,” Leno said, via the Chicago Tribune. “It’s going to help everything out — balance, the run game mixed with the pass game. We just need to capitalize when we get close to the end zone.”
In what was a stark contrast on the first play against the New Orleans Saints in Week 7 (a 1-yard gain) and the Chargers in Week 8 (a 10-yard gain), Leno believes that the first run really set the tone for what the run game accomplished against Los Angeles.
“You can see it from the first play — I-formation, simple, but it’s just a way that offensive linemen and running backs can hit their hole, get off the ball and just be physical,” Leno said. “And that’s what we were doing. Not a lot of RPO stuff, just going straight at defenders because as offensive linemen and running backs, that’s what we like to do. We like to go straight downhill.”
Now, it’s up to the offensive line — and the offense as a whole — to continue trending in an upwards direction. While the redzone offense needs a ton of work, if they dedicate time to fixing that like they did the run game, they’ll be in business.
